Lot of plot holes, but fun

“Timecop” is one of those movies that knows it has a great premise, but instead spends time being merely satisfactory. It’s like a blend of “Terminator”, “Back to the Future 2” and “Death Wish” rolled up into one and with Jean Claude Van Damme showing some terrific agility and Peter Hyams behind the camera, things look great. But in terms of engaging time travel movies, i’ve definitely seen better.

It begins with the founding of the Time Enforcement Police. Time travel is a thing in 1994. No, you can’t go forward in time because that hasn’t happened yet, and no, you can’t kill Hitler because who knows what an event that big will do. The TEC is there to stop people capitalizing off it and good guy cop Walker (Van Damme) is the new recruit, though he suffers a loss early on we know must be connected to the job.

Move ahead ten years and he still patrols the timestream, though it seems several among his ranks have turned corrupt along the way. A Senator running for president named McComb (Ron Silver) is concerned about all the wrong people having this kind of power and seems to want to get the program shutdown, though it turns out that he, too, is corrupt enough to use time travel for his own purposes.

The movie has been made as a vehicle for Van Damme and so his high kicks, splits, and various ass-kickings always seem just a tad more interesting than any actual time travel. He gets a script here that knows not to take anything happening too seriously and the periodic moments of comedy, whether making fun of his english or the plot silliness, works well toward being the kind of B-movie this is trying to be.

It’s entertaining, which is a good thing because it’s also not very concerned with questions it asks. How would the time police even know if time was altered? Wouldn’t they just go about their daily lives unknowing? And why is it that sometimes Walker can travel with a wristband while other times he has to go through some rocket car stargate? I’m assuming because the rocket car is cool, but it feels inconsistent nonetheless.

Walker also has a wife (Mia Sara) who succumbs to something tragic in the beginning. We assume he’s asked several times if he can go back and save her but he’s been told “no”. You kinda wish there was more to this than him just watching old home videos of her though, more so because Sara is a good actress who deserves more time here. And we know she’s eventually going to come back into the film later for some saving anyway, though why is it that she can only be saved as part of a mission?

Logic aside, Hyams knows how to have some fun with sci-fi trappings, coming from both “Outland” and “2010”. The time police reside in what looks like an underground fortress, they have self-driving cars, and can have sex in VR. All of this looks enjoyably clunky now and he keeps the laser guns, explosions, and Van Damme moments coming. There’s also a nice dark and stormy night home invasion scene that ends the film.

Silver also makes for a smug, self-righteous villain with some of the film’s best and most sarcastic lines. Whether he’s chastising Van Damme or telling his younger self to lay off the deserts, he seems to be having fun with it. Van Damme also ends up face to face with his younger self here at one point and it seems kind of a missed opportunity that we get no fight between them. What we do get is the actor doing a pretty charismatic, agile job though. It could have been better, but it also never bores.